All but 16 of the sales this year were in Oakland County, including the chart-topping $4.5-million deal in Bloomfield Township and a $3.9-million castle-like mansion with nine bathrooms on a private peninsula that Sergio Marchionne, the Chrysler andFiat CEO, snapped up in February.

So they weren't in Detroit proper or even Wayne County. They were in the well-to-do suburbs to the north of Detroit.

I'm a Michigander who works in real estate, and it's actually not as bad here as people think (though, granted, I work in what is easily the most affluent part of the state). The market, for the most part, has stabilized. There are some really, really nice houses on the market on the outer edges of Wayne county (e.g. Belleville), but the closer to you get to Detroit proper? You don't want to live there. A former coworker of mine had a house in Dearborn with her fiancee because it was cheap, and the whole thing ended up being gutted by looters (one of which her fiancee shot, and the police didn't give a damn). They ended up saying fark that and found more expensive but ultimately safer housing in Ann Arbor because she had a baby on the way and didn't want to deal with any nonsense.

breadprincess:I'm a Michigander who works in real estate, and it's actually not as bad here as people think (though, granted, I work in what is easily the most affluent part of the state). The market, for the most part, has stabilized. There are some really, really nice houses on the market on the outer edges of Wayne county (e.g. Belleville), but the closer to you get to Detroit proper? You don't want to live there. A former coworker of mine had a house in Dearborn with her fiancee because it was cheap, and the whole thing ended up being gutted by looters (one of which her fiancee shot, and the police didn't give a damn). They ended up saying fark that and found more expensive but ultimately safer housing in Ann Arbor because she had a baby on the way and didn't want to deal with any nonsense.

Detroit: Where racial tension mixed in with an economy too heavily dependent on one industry that ended up going through some turbulent times resulted in the epic clusterfark that we have come to know and mock today.

Mrtraveler01:All but 16 of the sales this year were in Oakland County, including the chart-topping $4.5-million deal in Bloomfield Township and a $3.9-million castle-like mansion with nine bathrooms on a private peninsula that Sergio Marchionne, the Chrysler andFiat CEO, snapped up in February.

So they weren't in Detroit proper or even Wayne County. They were in the well-to-do suburbs to the north of Detroit.

Mrtraveler01:Detroit: Where racial tension mixed in with an economy too heavily dependent on one industry that ended up going through some turbulent times resulted in the epic clusterfark that we have come to know and mock today.

MachineHead:Mrtraveler01: All but 16 of the sales this year were in Oakland County, including the chart-topping $4.5-million deal in Bloomfield Township and a $3.9-million castle-like mansion with nine bathrooms on a private peninsula that Sergio Marchionne, the Chrysler andFiat CEO, snapped up in February.

So they weren't in Detroit proper or even Wayne County. They were in the well-to-do suburbs to the north of Detroit.

Clearly this is a shock to no one.

Northville and Grosse Pointe Shores is in Wayne. This house they have listed here for Northville isn't on the water and sits about 5 feet apart from another house, I really never understood this. If I had 1.2 million dollars to spend on a house, I would find some elbow room.

Yea, I have that distance between myself and my neighbors, but I'm on the river. That spacing is flat-out unacceptable to me for anything on land. If I wanted to buy an expensive home I'd step an extra 10 minutes out from the suburbs in the area I was looking and pick up an extra acre.

MachineHead:Mrtraveler01: All but 16 of the sales this year were in Oakland County, including the chart-topping $4.5-million deal in Bloomfield Township and a $3.9-million castle-like mansion with nine bathrooms on a private peninsula that Sergio Marchionne, the Chrysler andFiat CEO, snapped up in February.

So they weren't in Detroit proper or even Wayne County. They were in the well-to-do suburbs to the north of Detroit.

Clearly this is a shock to no one.

Northville and Grosse Pointe Shores is in Wayne. This house they have listed here for Northville isn't on the water and sits about 5 feet apart from another house, I really never understood this. If I had 1.2 million dollars to spend on a house, I would find some elbow room.

breadprincess:I'm a Michigander who works in real estate, and it's actually not as bad here as people think (though, granted, I work in what is easily the most affluent part of the state). The market, for the most part, has stabilized. There are some really, really nice houses on the market on the outer edges of Wayne county (e.g. Belleville), but the closer to you get to Detroit proper? You don't want to live there. A former coworker of mine had a house in Dearborn with her fiancee because it was cheap, and the whole thing ended up being gutted by looters (one of which her fiancee shot, and the police didn't give a damn). They ended up saying fark that and found more expensive but ultimately safer housing in Ann Arbor because she had a baby on the way and didn't want to deal with any nonsense.

Okay, I don't see your point. In fact I don't see where you get your facts. My guess the houses selling, even over 1 mil, are still at a bargain price compared to 10 years ago. A cousin of mine is well off and had a house built just outside of Grand Blanc that used to be valued at 1.3 mil. We are talking a huge house with only cherry wood inside, several acres of land and is secluded. It is now valued at $800,000. She wants rid of it partly due to more break-in attempts than I have had living one block away from gang members. More expensive doesn't make it safer, just means the criminals will make their way to your house eventually. Look at the recent reports, crime is rising in suburbs with big houses and dropping where the houses are small. The criminals have learned to commute.

The California native authored the 2011 memoir "Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur."

I'll wait for the follow-up book "How I Went from Multimillionaire Entrepreneur to Homeless Shmuck After Consumers Figured Out That Energy Drinks Are Just Overpriced Sugar Water And I Couldn't Sell The Overpriced Homes I Bought For Even Half What I Still Owed On Them"

Mrtraveler01:All but 16 of the sales this year were in Oakland County, including the chart-topping $4.5-million deal in Bloomfield Township and a $3.9-million castle-like mansion with nine bathrooms on a private peninsula that Sergio Marchionne, the Chrysler andFiat CEO, snapped up in February.

So they weren't in Detroit proper or even Wayne County. They were in the well-to-do suburbs to the north of Detroit.

KimNorth:jso2897: KimNorth: Yes but what they fail to tell you is the people buying them are on welfare/HUD Housing or in a Union as those are the only ones with the money (tax payer money) to afford it.

Well, bless your heart.jaytkay: KimNorth: Yes but what they fail to tell you is the people buying them are on welfare/HUD Housing or in a Union as those are the only ones with the money (tax payer money) to afford it.

You sound really well informed. Please give us more details.

Geez either you two or I have not had enough coffee yet it was a joke, you know all the tax money the car companies got and all the unemployment there, lighten up.

Oakland county ( Bloomfield Hills etc. ) never really experienced the cataclysmic price drop that Detroit and other areas around it did, hence the high prices. It's a nice area, but way overbuilt and the restaurants are too expensive.

DownDaRiver:KimNorth: jso2897: KimNorth: Yes but what they fail to tell you is the people buying them are on welfare/HUD Housing or in a Union as those are the only ones with the money (tax payer money) to afford it.

Well, bless your heart.jaytkay: KimNorth: Yes but what they fail to tell you is the people buying them are on welfare/HUD Housing or in a Union as those are the only ones with the money (tax payer money) to afford it.

You sound really well informed. Please give us more details.

Geez either you two or I have not had enough coffee yet it was a joke, you know all the tax money the car companies got and all the unemployment there, lighten up.

//Hiting close to home, bad??

It's you! It's always you!

Why all the hate? Did they find those two guys buried under the house?

aiiee:Oakland county ( Bloomfield Hills etc. ) never really experienced the cataclysmic price drop that Detroit and other areas around it did, hence the high prices. It's a nice area, but way overbuilt and the restaurants are too expensive.

That's not true at all. The whole area was totally devastated in terms of home price, even Oakland county.

KimNorth:DownDaRiver: KimNorth: jso2897: KimNorth: Yes but what they fail to tell you is the people buying them are on welfare/HUD Housing or in a Union as those are the only ones with the money (tax payer money) to afford it.

Well, bless your heart.jaytkay: KimNorth: Yes but what they fail to tell you is the people buying them are on welfare/HUD Housing or in a Union as those are the only ones with the money (tax payer money) to afford it.

You sound really well informed. Please give us more details.

Geez either you two or I have not had enough coffee yet it was a joke, you know all the tax money the car companies got and all the unemployment there, lighten up.

//Hiting close to home, bad??

It's you! It's always you!

Why all the hate? Did they find those two guys buried under the house?

balloot:aiiee: Oakland county ( Bloomfield Hills etc. ) never really experienced the cataclysmic price drop that Detroit and other areas around it did, hence the high prices. It's a nice area, but way overbuilt and the restaurants are too expensive.

That's not true at all. The whole area was totally devastated in terms of home price, even Oakland county.

lack of warmth:breadprincess: I'm a Michigander who works in real estate, and it's actually not as bad here as people think (though, granted, I work in what is easily the most affluent part of the state). The market, for the most part, has stabilized. There are some really, really nice houses on the market on the outer edges of Wayne county (e.g. Belleville), but the closer to you get to Detroit proper? You don't want to live there. A former coworker of mine had a house in Dearborn with her fiancee because it was cheap, and the whole thing ended up being gutted by looters (one of which her fiancee shot, and the police didn't give a damn). They ended up saying fark that and found more expensive but ultimately safer housing in Ann Arbor because she had a baby on the way and didn't want to deal with any nonsense.

Okay, I don't see your point. In fact I don't see where you get your facts. My guess the houses selling, even over 1 mil, are still at a bargain price compared to 10 years ago. A cousin of mine is well off and had a house built just outside of Grand Blanc that used to be valued at 1.3 mil. We are talking a huge house with only cherry wood inside, several acres of land and is secluded. It is now valued at $800,000. She wants rid of it partly due to more break-in attempts than I have had living one block away from gang members. More expensive doesn't make it safer, just means the criminals will make their way to your house eventually. Look at the recent reports, crime is rising in suburbs with big houses and dropping where the houses are small. The criminals have learned to commute.

/the less it looks like you own, the less someone will try to take it

Um, I don't see your point either? I was saying that on the outskirts of Wayne county you can find some really nice houses in safe places on large plots of land. The closer you get to Detroit the cheaper they get and the more dangerous the neighborhoods get, what about that is so hard to understand? Believe me, no criminal is commuting all the way out to Canton or rural Belleville from downtown Detroit.